Ford Tri-Motor (Zorn - 1:33) in SCADTA colors

[richkat]

I'm going to build this kit myself, glad to see your build it will help me with mine! Yours is looking fantastic! hope I can do half as well as you!.....Rich

[757rol]

Awww Darn, your fault, now I have to build one .... excellent work its coming awesome

[cdavenport]

My compliments, sir! You know how to build, and that shot through the cabin door into the cockpit is quite incredible.

[Zathros]

Originally Posted by cdavenport

My compliments, sir! You know how to build, and that shot through the cabin door into the cockpit is quite incredible.

I thought so too!

[pong17003]

Nice job ruben! Your build is quite amazing compare to others ive seen (thought ive omly seen two).…

[milenio3]

Hey Rubén, I don´t think you are doing any mistake or wrongdoing. Everything looks amazing!!

[pong17003]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

Absolutely fantastic. Have you considered using LEDs to light the interior? To be able to see the fine detail after it is enclosed would be spectacular.

Yes that would be amazing to have LEDs inside the passenger area! Please try this ruben your work needs to be seen once finished

[Thomas Meek]

Your build is looking absolutely great so far, and promises to be a classic when finished. Thank you for sharing the build with us, as it will be a big help to others.

Thanks also especially to Peter Zorn for making this beauty available for no cost download. A truly significant gift to the paper modeling community.

[Rubenandres77]

Richkat: thanks for your compliments. Actually this is a friendly model, and is easy to get very good results with it.

757rol: thank toy very much. Don’t doubt in building it, is very nice model.

Major Charles: Thank you! I hope to get more interesting photos in the following steps

Zathros: I just like to play with the camera sometimes hehehehe.

Pong1703: thanks for your words.

Thomas: you qre quite right, Mr. Zorn was very kind to allow this gem to be released in this way




I’ve been absent these past weeks because I had to correct one little thing: the SCADTA logo on the fuselage. The logo is a stylized condor displayed over a landscape with a river and mountains.

I based my version of the logo on old timetables found at: Avianca - SCADTA - Alianza Summa
And I draw it with a full red background.

However, after an interview with a retired AVIANCA engineer who has a huge collection of SCADTA memorabilia and documentation, I found my version was wrong, and the correct logo used white color for the sky (not red). He assured me the colors were correct, except for the sky. Below you can see the difference. On the left my incorrect first version, and on the right the corrected version.



So I took the new file to the same copy shop where I printed the kit… only to find it had closed down. Too bad. So I went to other places to print the file… only to find that even laser printers differ a lot from each other, and at the end I got 3 different hues of grey from the same source file, not one even close to the original I had with the wrong logo.

Tired of that I just decided to come back home and use the original piece with wrongly colored logo. At least that way I preserve uniformity in the grey color of the aluminum skin. But it was “bye-bye accuracy”.


So let’s continue with the report, as close as possible to the original instructions.

The cockpit is not difficult, but it must be done with care because of the folds and cut-outs of the windows. If you downloaded the kit, you’ll find that in the digital restoration I provided extra grey part to be used as backing, so that the back of the cardstock doesn’t look white when seen through the windows.


That is probably a good option if you use thin cardstock. However, if the cardstock you use is a bit thick this may cause you unnecessary problems when folding. I found it was my case, so I just opted for painting the back of the cardstock with silver ink.

The transparent windows were made with the template provided in the kit. I just used white PVA to glue them. The seem to have glued well, but time will tell.

The cockpit is attached to the structures without problems. If you need to adjust something it will be very little.



I cut the windows of the skin, and pre-shaped it before glueing it. Always dry-test it before glueing it. Since the cut-outs of the windows align perfectly it is very easy to get the skins glued properly (don’t forget to previously glue a piece of acetate to simulate the passenger windows).



One small note: you may want to dry-test the fuselage skins *and* the cockpit before glueing, so that the cockpit side windows match better with the cutout of the fuselage skin. I did it, and used a pencil to trace the place where the cockpit should be, then glued it, and after dry I glued the skins.

Don’t pay attention to the silver paint. I brushed some to prevent any white part showing after the skins were attached, but in reality none of it showed.

After glueing the skins, I had a mildly unpleasant surprise: the top of the roof where the side skins meet was a bit too short. You can see there is a gap of almost 1mm. I believe it could be for a number of reasons:

- Cardstock too thick.
- Parts drawn a bit smaller than the original.
- An accident when modifying the part to eliminate the round cockpit window to convert it to a 5-AT-D.
- Glueing the cabin arch roof *before* the sides of the cabin roof.

Or it could be a combination of some or all of the above.



In any case that gap is now forever part of the model. Fortunately, it is a very forgiving model, and some mistakes can be made without affecting too much the appearance of the plane.



Now is time for the rear part of the fuselage. Here I would like to call the attention of anyone building this kit. When I cut the part and compared it to the original I found the one from the digital kit was smaller than the original. Not much, just 1mm or so. But it is a noticeable difference. I really don’t know how or why it happened. But it happened nonetheless. I offer my apologies for the mistake, and warn you to be prepared for some extra work.



The problem lies in the point where the rear fuselage structure is joined with the main structure (at the rear wall of the toilet). The rear structure lacks 1mm to be equal in width to the width of the toilet rear wall. This will never allow a good fit of the skins, and the gap (or “step”) will be awful.

I solved the problem by laminating 2 pieces of cardstock to each side of the rear structure, so that way the skins of it will have a more flushed contact with the cabin’s skins. You may need to trim the upper arched ribs a bit so that the skins fit properly at the bottom.

In my case I also had to add bits of paper and cardstock to fill the space between the two structures, so that they glued better. This part requires some work if you wish to have a good model with a good joint. But the result is really worth the effort (and I think more experienced modelers will get even better results).



In the end you’ll get a nice fuselage.



In my case it is a nice fuselage with an inaccurate logo.
(sorry for the improvised photo: the fuselage is already bigger than my working area, so I had to use my bed and a piece of cloth to get a decent photo... I really don't want to show how incredibly messy my small working area is .)

That’s all for today’s update. See you soon with the wings and stabilizer sections!

[billy.leliveld]

Looks fine Ruben,
One little tip; beware of the bottom outer skin part, no 93, don't cut it like it is, leave some extra space on it and dry fit it and trim if necessary, in my memory that was the hardest part